A robot may perform a task within an environment in various manners, depending on the capabilities of the robot, one or more attributes of the task, one or more attributes of an object to be acted upon, and/or one or more attributes of the environment. For example, a robot may be assigned a task of collecting an object at a first location and depositing the object at a second location. Suppose the object is fragile (e.g., an egg), that the deposit location is not precisely known, or that an attribute of the object makes it react poorly to sudden or swift motion (e.g., the object is a full wine glass). Under any of these circumstances, it may be preferable for the robot to move slowly, deliberately, and/or to emulate a relatively low level of impedance (i.e. stiffness) towards its environment. By contrast, if the object is non-fragile and/or relatively heavy, then it may be preferable for the robot to move more deliberately and/or to emulate a relatively high level of impedance towards its environment.